Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Official Website

ASAM

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria - formerly known as the ASAM patient placement criteria - is the result of a collaboration that began in the 1980s to define one national set of criteria for providing outcome-oriented and results-based care in the treatment of addiction. Today, the criteria have become the most widely used and comprehensive set of guidelines for placement, continued stay and transfer/discharge of patients with addiction and co-occurring conditions. The ASAM's criteria is required in over 30 states.

ASAM's criteria is an indispensable resource that addiction medicine professionals rely on to provide a nomenclature for describing the continuum of addiction services. (ASAM.org)

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Services (DDAP) began the statewide transition from the formerly used criteria PCPC to The ASAM Criteria, 2013 in 2017. The use of the criteria as a Level of Care Assessment (LOCA) tool started on January 1st, 2019. 

Please visit DDAP’s ASAM Transition website for up-to-date information on The ASAM transition as well as documents to help facilities align service delivery for each level of care provided.  

Click the links below to learn more: